


Fall To Grace

by CrystalMoon884



Category: RWBY
Genre: Emerald redemption arc, Emerald with third person POV, F/F, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-10 12:01:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12298836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystalMoon884/pseuds/CrystalMoon884
Summary: Nothing's worse than a crushing conscience, and no one knows that better than Emerald Sustari. Between what she did at the fall of Beacon, and for Cinder before they aligned themselves with the White Fang and Salem, she has more than enough nightmare and guilt fuel.However, when she finally gains the strength and courage to stand on her own two legs and undo her bad deeds, she unwittingly pushes Salem's timeline ahead and causes more chaos than she thought was possible.Things go from bad to worse until Emerald is finally forced to choose where her loyalties really lie, and who she willing to die for and who she is ready to let go of.





	1. The Escape

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written because of a my friend Emilio, a friend who I am truly blessed to have in my life. Thank you so much for the idea, and I hope that it has turned out just as you thought that it would!  
> This story went by the name of "The Emerald Redemption Arc No One Asked For" on the original Google Docs files that I wrote this story in. Just thought the people of the Internet might want to know that.  
> Enjoy!

Tonight was the night.

 

     Emerald’s knees buckled as she tried to sit up from her bed. This was really happening. She felt her breath catch in her throat, and panic – a new and horrifying kind – filled her for a second. The dread that had been building in her stomach at the concept of running away, of taking her life into her own hands, it now made her feel weak, both mentally and physically. In an effort to calm herself down, Emerald’s eyes glazed over her bedroom in Salem’s castle.

 

    The room was a good size, about twenty paces of Emerald’s long legs on each side. The walls were a light grey, and the floor was a spiraling red and black marble that made Emerald’s head hurt when she stared at it for too long. The ceiling above her head wasn’t anything special, unlike the rest of the rooms in Salem’s castle. It wasn’t covered a graphic painting of Grimm ripping apart weak Hunters and Huntresses, it was just a flat, plain black.

 

     The books she wasn’t emotionally attached to were still up on a wooden shelf that Emerald had put in herself. A couple of spare dust cartages and an odd crystal were scattered across her desk, along with pencils and a blank diary that Emerald hadn’t so much as touched. Her eyes then lifted to the open wardrobe that was looked like a wounded body that was losing blood, only the blood was clothes. Most of the fabric of the shorts, shirts and sweaters that were spilling from it were green and black, with the occasional flash of white that caught Emerald’s eye.

 

     Emerald sat back down on her bed and dug her fingers into the thick blanket that was on top of her bed. It was red and black, like most things in Salem’s castle – or would hideout be a better word? Emerald really had no clue to call where she was currently living. On Emerald’s back was a backpack filled with everything that she wanted to take with her when she left. The black cloth bag held everything that Emerald held dear or needed for survival, which wasn’t much.

 

     A couple of extra cartages of dust, her scroll and scroll charger, a map of Remnant that had been a ‘gift’ from Cinder, a couple changes of clothes which included a jacket, an extra pair of pants and some t-shirts. There were a few other odds and ends in Emerald’s backpack, like a First Aid kit and a couple of signal-boosters for scrolls that hadn’t yet been given to the military. A couple bags of food sat next to an extra container of bullets.

 

     Tapping her foot against the marble floor, Emerald took account of what she was wearing. She wasn’t wearing her normal outfit, she had left it behind in her bleeding wardrobe. Instead, she was wearing an outfit that she had crafted from Cinder’s discarded clothing. A black t-shirt was worn under a tight grey jacket, and a pair of high-waisted red shorts made her look like she was a part of the room she was sitting in. Only her hair made her stand out, and Emerald loved the way that felt. At least something held her back from becoming nothing more than a background image. Her black combat boots were her favorite part of her new ensemble.

 

     For what felt like the hundredth time, Emerald’s eyes flicked over to the clock on the wall. Salem didn’t like usual analog clocks that displayed twelve numbers (or maps or books written in English), so Emerald had been forced to learn a whole new language of strange symbols and old Latin words to be able to read old maps and clocks that Salem liked to fill her space with. Mercury, who wasn’t forced to learn these things, asked Emerald about what the symbols meant, though he conveniently ‘forgot’ the meanings each day.

 

     Emerald grit her teeth when she thought about Mercury. The only flaw to her plan. Tyrian wasn’t a threat to her plans, Cinder was asleep and she wouldn’t be awake when Emerald finally made her run for it. Hazel and Watts were doing Lord-knows-what elsewhere in Remnant, all Emerald cared to know was that they weren’t in Salem’s castle with her right now. But Mercury might present a threat to Emerald’s plan, she had gotten too close to him. She feared that he might guess about her escape.

 

     Friends wasn’t the right word for the relationship that Emerald and Mercury had. It was more like. . . Forced acquaintances? Like when your mom and dad forced you to get along with the cousin that you really, really hate each year for Unity Day, Emerald thought. Emerald only got along with Mercury because she had to, he was just another person that she was forced to work with and be around, nothing more and nothing less.

 

     Yeah, he’d tried to flirt with her in the past. He’d even tried asking her out on a real date, but Emerald had turned him down right away. She didn’t need him, or his pity. She knew that he was the one to hate pitying, and she could tell why. He was jumpy, and he would often times wake up from nightmares when they were back at Beacon. He didn’t think that she noticed, but Emerald was a light sleeper and her red eyes watched him, scared and gasping, wake from nightmares at least once a night in that small, dark dorm room that they had shared.

 

     Those days felt like they were memories from someone else’s life to Emerald. What had happened to Beacon was something that had given Emerald a few nightmares, she had had qualms about the plan when Cinder had first told them about it. However, the voice inside her head that whispered for her to do the right thing wasn’t as loud as the screaming voice that told her that leaving Cinder was not only giving up her only means of eating and finding a safe place to sleep, but it was short of suicide.

 

     A scoff tore itself from Emerald’s throat as she thought about Cinder’s ‘kindness’. Cinder had used Emerald like a pawn, nothing but a piece to be moved around a chess board by someone who was only playing to gain power and to take down enemies that had long since died at her own hand. Emerald didn’t know much about Cinder’s past, but what she did know – village destroyed by the military, a near death experience and a lost brother – made it sound like the woman had been dealt a bad hand.

 

     However, being dealt a bad hand in life didn’t give anyone – no matter who they were – the right to mess with other people’s lives in Emerald’s opinion. If you had a bad life, then you got up and you worked to try and make your life better. Maybe you weren’t always honest, but Emerald believed that working was the way to get yourself out of a bind or a bad spot in life. Too bad Cinder hadn’t thought about anyone but herself when choosing her life’s career and job.

 

     Emerald guessed that she couldn’t really blame Cinder for wanting revenge after what had happened to her, but she could blame Cinder for getting her wrapped up in this. Emerald hadn’t asked to be taken to some strange hellish world! She hadn’t asked for the kind of guilt the caused people to throw themselves off of bridges! Nor had she asked to be living in the same castle as a demon, where creatures of Grimm rise from puddles of negative emotions and the ashes of the dead.

 

     She hadn’t been given a choice in any of it. Not when Cinder said that they would go into business with the White Fang. Not when Cinder said that they were going to add Mercury’s father to the group, or when they actually ended up taking Mercury instead. Emerald was just along for the ride, just a little chess piece who was sitting on the front lines, a piece who everyone believed couldn’t fight back, couldn’t stand up for herself.

 

     But they were wrong.

 

    With a sudden burst of courage, Emerald finally threw herself up from her bed. She checked one more time that the clock read just four minutes before midnight, and she walked over to her bedroom door and placed her hand on the doorknob. She knew that once she left, there was no coming back. There was no second chance, but even though the lines between wrong and right had blurred since Emerald had joined Cinder’s faction, she knew that what they were doing was wrong.

 

     And, at the very least, she wasn’t going to be a part of it anymore. Emerald didn’t know if she’d fight against them, she almost feared having to face Cinder now that she was the Fall Maiden. Emerald also ran a hand through her short hair and fretted about the fact that she’d have to do something with it. She knew that she couldn’t stay looking the same way for very much longer, lest someone recognize her and tow her back to Salem’s hellscape to be punished by Salem’s minions.

 

     Her combat boots made an almost hollow noise as they touched the ground in perfect footfalls as Emerald made her way down to the portal that she had come through to get to Salem’s lair. The portal was a large, dark red pulsing _thing_ that was mounted on a wall. Emerald could remember teleporting before, for the first time. When she came out of it, her body was depleted and she fell to her knees as her lungs tried to gasp as much oxygen as they could. The same thing happened to Mercury, but one else seemed to react like they had.

 

     After teleporting and looking like a wounded animal, Emerald and Mercury had been singled out as nothing more than children. They had never been through a portal before, and they had only learned of how powerful Salem was the very same day that they had been thrown into Salem’s castle. Emerald could remember being frightened and angry that no one had told her anything to expect. But she was scared of Salem, so she let her anger towards her die.

 

     The halls of Salem’s castle were, and Emerald hated to admit it, lavish and beautiful in a demonic sort of way. The dark reds, blacks and greys made it seem like a villain’s hideout for sure, but the ornate designs of the pillars holding up the ceiling and the way that the marble stones under Emerald’s feet looking vastly different from any other stone Emerald had ever seen gave it the look of a medieval castle. All the was missing was the dragon, and the princess in the tower.

 

     Sometimes, when the light was low and there was nothing else to do, Emerald would recite her favorite fairytales to herself when as she tried to coax herself to sleep. She’d tell herself that she was just like those princesses in those stories, trapped in a horrible place that was guarded by horrible monsters. Just like those princesses, she had a part to play and she couldn’t escape from her prison. Unlike those princesses, she had committed crimes and taken lives.

 

     Finally, Emerald approached a flight of stairs near the second floor’s West staircase and landing. Every landing on the staircases in the castle had a large window in it, allowing anyone standing on the landing to look out over the dark, dismal landscape of Salem’s dimension to see the Beowolves and Ursas as they roamed the dead terrain in search of humans to maul and murder.

 

     As Emerald looked out across the landscape, she could see a Beowolf pack growling at each other as two of its members fought for control of the pack. It looked as if they pack consisted of mainly males, as they were bigger and more aggressive than females. However, they were also slower than females, and many Hunters cited the muscle mass of the males because of this.

 

     Two of the larger males were growling at each other as they stood on their hind legs and swiped at the empty air between each other menacingly. One of them lowered himself onto his four legs and raised his hackles, showing that he was ready for a fight. The second followed suit, and their pack members howled in delight at the fight that was sure to come. Emerald didn’t want to watch the carnage that would no doubt come next, and she quickly and quietly walked down to where she knew the portal she was looking for was kept.

 

     Emerald took the stairs two at a time as she breezed past paintings of Nevermores perched in large trees with dead Huntsmen in their claws, Goliaths with swords sticking from their plates of armors where humans had failed to take them down and King Taijitus that curled around piles of bodies of the fallen warriors that had tried to oppose their reign of terror. The Grimm were all painted with glowing red eyes and long claws, teeth and tusks dripping with blood that made a shiver run down Emerald’s back.

 

     Once she was down on the ground floor of Salem’s castle, Emerald was able to fully appreciate the architecture that surrounded her. In her own bedroom and many of the rooms and places that Emerald was permitted to go in the castle, there weren’t many arching ceilings or large pillars. Salem’s throne room and the hallways were the only places that Emerald was allowed to go sometimes that had stunning architecture. Other than that, the library, fighting room, training room and bedroom she was allowed to go into were banal and basic compared to the designs of the first floor hallways.

 

    Emerald didn’t mind that her bedroom wasn’t as stunning as the rest of the castle. In fact, as she looked up at the skulls and Grimm faces that were carved into the pillars and marble in the hallways, she was almost happy that they didn’t exist in her room. She would hate to fall asleep each night to the sight of dead bodies engraved into the stone above her head.

 

     Emerald walked down the hallway until she was about a third of the way down the hall. She then looked at the fourth door in the hallway, a door which she knew had the portal behind it. It had taken her just two days to locate everything that she needed to make her plan to run away run smoothly, a week to formulate the plan and she had only had to wait four measly days for everyone to be gone at the same time to allow her to escape properly.

 

     A final sigh was breathed through Emerald’s nose as she placed her hand on the doorknob. Something inside of her told her that this was too easy, it was too simple for her to run away and just leave it all behind. Images of when she had run away as a child flashed before her eyes and she pushed down the bile that rose in her throat. Now was _not_ the time to succumb to old fears and misgivings. Emerald was the one who was going to take control of her life, not anyone else.

 

     Emerald looked right and then left one last time to check for anyone who might try to stop her before she finally opened the door. In a motion that lasted less than a second, Emerald threw herself into the room and closed the door behind her. Emerald could feel a mix of excitement and dread build in her stomach, she had now just hit the point of no return. There was no turning back now, and she was okay with that.

 

     Before her, the room jutted out at odd angles. The room itself was an irregular seven-sided polygon. Emerald didn’t know why it looked so strange, or why the portals that Salem so dearly loved was in a weird room on the first floor, but it didn’t seem to matter. Emerald didn’t really care, it wasn’t like knowing the reason why was going to help her escape any quicker, which was her current goal.

 

     The room seemed to be lighted from nowhere and everywhere all at once. There was darkness where it was convenient, but other than that a reddish-white light bathed most of the strange looking room and Emerald was able to see everything quite easily. The portal that she was waiting for would spawn on the wall right in front of her for just a minute at midnight, or when someone stepped through it. Whichever came first.

 

     There were four different portals that were currently swirling in front of and around Emerald. At exactly midnight, a very special portal would open. Most portals, as it was explained by the books that Emerald had read in the North library, brought the user to a fixed point in space and time. It was essentially just a teleporting system that utilized magic. However, some were special and they could read a user’s thoughts and send them to wherever and whoever they were thinking about.

 

     And that was what Emerald was counting on. She knew that she couldn’t return to where she grew up – it wasn’t like the people there would want her back anyways, they had always hated her, not even her family wanted to claim that they were affiliated with her – or anywhere near Beacon, as it was still in chaos. She’d need to go somewhere else, somewhere where no one would think to look for her, a place where she could explain herself and try to make up for her actions.

 

     And that place was wherever the heck Ruby Rose was.

 

     Emerald hated to admit it, but the peppy, optimistic girl whom she had pretended to hate had taken up much of her mind lately. Emerald knew what Ruby had done to Cinder, and she also knew that Ruby would forgive her for what she had done. Ruby was Emerald’s only hope, and although Emerald loathed to admit it, she had no other choices at her current point in time. As much as she wanted to disappear into a small town or forest, she knew that if Salem or Cinder found her they’d make short work of her if she was without any allies to fight for her.

 

     She just had to wait a few more seconds for the portal to open and then-

 

     “Hey, Emerald.”

 

     Emerald whirled around with all of the grace of a ballet dancer, and she pulled her weapons out of their hostlers as she twirled. Her weapons were guns now, and their sights were locked upon a dark corner of the room, where Emerald guessed the voice had come from. But Emerald knew that voice as well as she knew her own. That voice was a part of her day, and it _never seemed to stop talking._

 

     “Mercury.” Emerald hissed, her eyes narrowing as she spoke. The fear that might have built at the idea of her plan falling to pieces was replaced by the anger that she felt that Mercury was within twenty feet of her. Emerald watched as Mercury slowly sauntered out of the darkness and into the harsh, red glow that the portals gave off as they churned and fed on negative energy. “Why are you here?”

 

     “Put the guns down, sweetheart, the sound of the bullets will only make Salem come crawling over here. And we wouldn’t want that, now would we?” Mercury seemed bored by the sight of Emerald’s weapons pointed at his person, almost as if this was a daily occurrence in his life. Which it had been for a while, but Emerald had shot him once just to show that she could. Cinder had been mad, but it had been worth it. “So, tell me, Emerald, why run away now of all times? Wouldn’t it be better to wait until we’re in battle to sneak away?”

 

     “Although that idea did come to my mind,” Emerald didn’t lower her weapons, and she spoke with a steel tongue in an unwavering voice, “I can’t spend another minute here. And, let’s face it, you want me gone as much as I want me gone. So, why don’t you walk out of this room, so we can share our common goal, okay? And, you didn’t answer my question.”

 

     Mercury thought about Emerald’s proposal for a second, and Emerald could see it in his eyes that he was weighing the pros and cons of letting Emerald leave. On the one hand, he wouldn’t have to deal with her anymore. He’d be free of her, and she’d be free of him. On the other, he’d have to spend time tracking her down if Cinder or Salem ordered him to, and he’d have to fight Emerald if he found her. They’d sparred with each other a few times, but it had been too exhausting for either of them to fight for more than a few minutes.

 

     “Well, you didn’t answer _my_ question.” All semblance of thought left Mercury’s eyes and face as he took a step towards Emerald with anger in his stance. A fire burned in his eyes, and he looked like he was ready to stomp Emerald into the ground. “Why do you want to leave now of all times? Right before something _big_ is about to happen? Right before we can guarantee ourselves a happy, peaceful life under Salem’s rule? You’re not afraid of dying, are you?”

 

     “I’m leaving because I can’t stand what I’ve done.” Emerald’s words were short and minced. She was struggling to speak to Mercury as she thought about the poral that she needed. She shifted her weight in her anxiety, and Mercury studied every part of her stance. “I’m leaving because right now, I would rather be any other place but here. I just can’t look out over the sea of Grimm each day and not think that I helped cause it. I need to leave.”

 

     “So, you’re just jumping ship?” Mercury scoffed, the anger in his voice was almost tangible. “Don’t you understand the kind of reward that comes with working for Salem? Safety, food, a place to sleep are all a definite! And that’s just to start! You’re leaving because of some _emotions?_ You’re just going to pretend like your problems don’t exist, like you can run away from them? And just leave me here?”

 

     Emerald didn’t know what to say. She wanted to lash out in anger, to explain to him how hard it was to get up in the morning knowing that she had helped to bring about the fall of Beacon. But, when he said his last sentence she could almost hear the tone of lost child in his voice. She could remember watching him wake up at least once a week from nightmares, crying softly as he willed himself back into a fitful sleep. All at once, Emerald realized that Mercury, on some level, needed her around.

 

     But, Emerald didn’t have time to say anything. Out of her peripheral vision, she could see a portal open up in the middle of the wall that was before her. It was a much darker black than the other portals, and Emerald knew that it would only be open for a single minute, or until someone used it to portal somewhere. All at once, Emerald sheathed her weapons and Mercury lunged at her as she jumped into the portal.

 

     The leap that Emerald needed to make was only a couple of feet, nothing that she couldn’t handle even on a bad day. However, she was worried and anxiety was racking her brain and she missed her mark by just a foot. Mercury came down upon her, kicking her in her solar plexus but she grabbed onto his shoulders before she could go flying where had had kicked her. Emerald’s fingers dug into Mercury’s skin and bone as a confused expression flashed across his face. She moved her boots to his chest with a lightning fast swing of her torso.

 

    With a powerful kick, Emerald sent herself flying into the portal that was destined to send her anywhere but Salem’s hellscape. Mercury’s angry and confused face was the last thing that Emerald saw before she could feel the portal consume her body. There was a horrible cold that filled her every muscle, bone and joint and spread to her soul. She almost wondered if she had died, but she pushed the thought from her mind as quickly as she could and thought of other things.

 

     Emerald thought of Ruby Rose and she let the annoying fifteen-year-old fill her mind. The way that she spoke, laughed and fought filled Emerald’s brain as she tried not to think about how weak her body felt, how her lungs were collapsing inside of her chest. Emerald bit her lip so hard she could taste blood – it was red like the rose petals used in Ruby’s semblance.

 

     All at once, the teleportation process was over, and Emerald was thrown from the cold wasteland that existed inside of those horrible portals. Unlike the first time that Emerald had been in a portal, she was more exhausted than anything she thought was possible. She could feel warmth, the kind of warmth that could only be given off by heaters and furnaces inside of a building where people lived and slept.

 

    The heat was welcoming and Emerald let her muscles relax as she heard someone cry out from above her. She was vaguely aware of the feeling of a wooden floor under her stomach, chest, arms and legs. The wood was something close to warm against her cheek and she wanted to just lay there and take a nap. Her lungs weren’t gasping for air like they had the first time she had been thrown into a portal, and Emerald was surprised by this. But it wasn’t like she was going to complain about it, though.

 

     “Oh my God, Emerald?” Someone who sounded like Ruby called out, and Emerald could hear and feel footsteps quickly walking over to her. Emerald saw Ruby walk over to her and kneel down so that she could look into Emerald’s eyes. Ruby looked confused, and even a little scared, but she was holding everything together pretty well. Her eyes got wide, however, when she took a closer look at Emerald. “Emerald, are you bleeding? Who did you fight? Are you okay?”

 

     “Ruby what’s-” A rough, dark male voice spoke up and Emerald tried to place where she had heard it before. She knew she had heard that voice before, but she couldn’t think of where exactly. All she knew was that one second she was looking into Ruby’s eyes from the wooden floor, and the next second her body had been jerked quickly into a standing position, with a hand around her throat and a second pushing her left shoulder against a wall. “You.”

 

     It took Emerald a second to process at the man she was looking at. The messy black hair, the lightish redeyes and the stink of alcohol were all clues, but it wasn’t until she saw the sideways cross on a chain around his neck that she was sure that the man who had her pinned up against a wall was Qrow Branwen. Qrow narrowed his eyes as he studied Emerald, and his eyes fell to the thin line of blood that was coming from her lip.

 

     “Who sent you here?” Qrow growled in a low voice. His grip on Emerald’s shoulder became a little stronger, and Emerald wanted to tell him to get away from her, but she knew that lashing out at him would only make things worse. She desperately tried to focus her eyes on his face and read his emotions, but her mind kept trying to doze off. “Hey, don’t try blacking out on me! You still haven’t answered my question.”

 

     “Stop it, Uncle Qrow, you’re hurting her!” Ruby cried and tried to move her body between Emerald and Qrow. Emerald was struck by how much Ruby seemed to care for her, even though Ruby knew full well that Emerald was as good as her enemy. “I’m sure that she’ll answer questions later, but it looks like she’s hurt! And she’s bleeding, we don’t know what just happened.”

 

     “I ran away.” Emerald managed to whisper after a second of pause. “I don’t work for anyone anymore. Now _put me down.”_

Emerald’s words were supposed to sound as if they were threatening, but they just came out flat and null. Emerald strained to continue to focus on Qrow’s face and she forced her eyes open but she feared that she couldn’t keep it up forever. Ruby looked at Emerald with wide eyes, her gaze seemed to tell Emerald that Ruby would have never expected Emerald to cross over to her side.

 

     “I don’t believe you.” Qrow’s voice sounded like thunder and his eyes showed that he wanted nothing more than to throw Emerald into the lowest pit of Hell. His upper lip curled away from his teeth, and Emerald could see his perfectly white, sharp canines. “And why should I believe you? I saw the way that you fought Amber, the way that you didn’t flinch as you looked out across Beacon.”

 

     “People change?” Emerald tried weakly, but she could see that her attempt at an excuse made only made Qrow angrier. Okay, wrong thing to say, but Emerald couldn’t feel her fingers or toes anymore, so she knew that she only a few more seconds to speak before she either died to fell into a coma. Emerald wasn’t sure which one she preferred at this point in time. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m just going to die now.”

 

     Emerald, now fully out of energy to stake awake, fell forwards and her chin fell down to her chest. She closed her eyes and she felt her muscles go limp, and a sense of strange calm fill her. Emerald could feel Qrow’s grip on her shoulder lesson just a little bit as his fingers began to remove themselves from the fabric of the jacket that Emerald had stolen from Cinder.

 

    Finally, Qrow let go of Emerald and Emerald felt herself fall straight to the floor. Emerald could hear Ruby gasp and try to shake Emerald awake as she worriedly pushed Emerald’s bangs out of her eyes. Ruby whispered words to Emerald, but she was so out of it that shouldn’t couldn’t tell what Ruby was saying, much less whatever language she was speaking in.

 

    She did, however, understand Qrow’s grunt of a word.

 

     “Shit.”


	2. Welcome To Team RWWOQ

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emerald wakes up after throwing herself through one of Salem's portals. She isn't very happy about what she wakes up to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this chapter took me about a day to write.  
> I managed to write and edit this in record time. That probably isn't a good thing, but it's over 5,000 words long and I'm pretty happy with the overall plot.  
> Ruby, Winter, Weiss, Oscar and Qrow make up team RWWOQ, which is said aloud just like the English word 'rock'.  
> Enjoy!

The light that filtered into the room was the kind of light that signified early morning.

 

     Emerald focused on that light, urging it to fall upon her face as she woke up. She loved the sun, mostly because she hadn’t been able to see it for many months while being trapped in Salem’s castle and the hellish landscape that it resided in. It was a place where the sun didn’t shine, the only real light source was a large, pulsing red portal in the sky that Emerald didn’t fully understand the purpose for.

 

     Looking around the room that she was in, Emerald calmly assessed the fact that she was tied up, and that the things that she had taken with her away from Salem’s castle were scattered across a desk haphazardly in front of her. A couple of dusk packets sat on top of her map of Remnant, while her scroll and scroll charger leaned against her disarmed weapons. Her extra pairs of clothes were the only things that had been set down nicely onto the desk, they were folded and were leaning up against the wall.

 

     Emerald herself was also leaning up against a wall. She was sitting up on a bed, and her back and the wall were at the perfect angle to keep her from falling down in her sleep. Emerald surveyed the rest of the room with a single look: another bed, empty, sat next to the one that Emerald was sitting on. There was a small night table between the two beds, it had a cheap lamp resting on it. There was a sloppy painting of a mountain range up on the wall, but other than that the room was bare of decorations.

 

     The wooden floor was dusty, and it had scratches, dents and cracks running from the small wooden door to the wall that had the poorly painted painting on it. The whole place just had a feel of an old, cheap hotel that no one stayed anymore. The only good part about the room was the large window with semi-opaque white blinds that fell over it and allowed some light to be filtered into the room.

 

     After a little bit of a struggle, Emerald confirmed that the knots that kept her from moving were indeed done by a professional and her eyes looked down to see that her bare feet were bound at her ankles, too. Emerald calmly sighed and pushed her fear out of her mind as she tried to think of her ways out of where she was. After a few seconds of thinking, anxiety pushed through the mental barriers that Emerald had erected to keep it at bay.

 

     “Dammit.” Emerald cursed as she slammed her head back against the wall she was leaning up against. Her muscles were stiff from sleeping sitting up all night, and she tried to get her blood flowing so that she could be up and ready to fight if she needed to. Even though she knew that she was with usually nonviolent people, Emerald knew that trusting anyone for any reason would lead to getting stabbed in the back both metaphorically and literally.

 

     “I see that you’re awake.” A voice jolted Emerald into a defensive stance, even though her hands were tied behind her back. This wasn’t the first time that she had been tied up, and she had learned how to make herself look dangerous even when tied up and helpless. The wielder of the voice that Emerald had heard stepped into the room Emerald was in, and she could see Qrow Branwen standing in front of her in all of his glory. “Did you have a good rest, Greenie?”

 

     “What’s going on?” Emerald cut right to the chase, there were important things that she had to know about. Qrow walked fully into the room and leaned up against the wall after he closed the door to the room behind him. The space that Emerald and Qrow were in was quite small, and it seemed to fill up with negative energy very quickly as a result of this. “Where am I? What are you going to do to me?”

 

      “That _isn’t_ how this is going to work, Greenie.” Qrow mockingly shook his head and walked over to Emerald. Emerald tried to scoot away from him, but the bed she was sitting on was small and she couldn’t move very far without falling off of the old mattress that she was placed upon. As Qrow got closer to her, Emerald could smell alcohol. _“I’m_ going to ask the questions. And, first and most importantly, I want to know why Salem sent you. And, by extension, why she sent you while making you so under-prepared.”

 

     “Salem didn’t send me.” Emerald tried to speak without letting emotion seep into her words, but she failed. Fear and anger cut into her every spoken syllable, and Emerald could feel her hands shaking. She wasn’t sure if it was sheer fear, or from going through a portal. “I ran away. I couldn’t stand to be there anymore. Grimm were everywhere, and I didn’t feel safe and –”

 

     Emerald cut herself off before she could say anything else. She bit her lip and she tasted blood as a couple drops of scarlet blood broke free from her flesh. The taste of metal was the only thing that Emerald let herself focus on as she tried to not think about the people that she’d killed, the kingdom that she’d help topple, or the lives that she had helped Salem take. Anxiety and fear once again clawed at Emerald’s nerves, but she pushed them down and put on a brave face.

 

     “I just needed to escape.” The words tore themselves from Emerald’s throat before she could even think them. She let her head fall to her chest, and her chin pressed up against her collarbone. Memories of Salem’s horrible castle flashed in her mind, and she could remember the atmosphere of greedy death and rotting hatred. “I couldn’t stay there another day. I fought someone who I thought was my ally – who I would have once called ‘friend’ – to be able to escape and I just need somewhere to go. I need somewhere to stay for now, until I’m ready to fight back against _her.”_

Qrow was slightly taken aback at Emerald’s words, and he walked away from her. His shoes made perfectly rhythmic clicks on the floor that suggested he had practiced his drunken walking. He stopped walking when he was at the foot of the bed that Emerald was sitting on, and Emerald’s eyelids narrowed until they were nothing more than paper slits. She didn’t trust Qrow for a second and she had no clue what he was playing at.

 

     “Not what I would have expected from you, Greenie.” Qrow shrugged, frowning deeply. He tapped his foot against the floor and cast his eyes down to his feet before looking up and locking eyes with Emerald. Emerald felt a shiver run down her spine, and she could almost feel the hate that Qrow was giving off right now, the curling of his lip confirmed her theory about his bad mood. “But, I find it hard to forgive someone who worked for the _creature_ that killed someone whom I loved.”

 

     Qrow spat out the word ‘creature’ as if it were a horribly ugly word, and Emerald understood right away who he was talking about when he said ‘creature’. Emerald bit her injured lip again and looked away from Qrow, she knew what it was like to lose someone you cared about. Grimm attacks, no matter how much the kingdoms wanted to deny it, were still deadly even after all these years of advancements in so many fields. Grimm still claimed the lives of so many, and Salem mocked and boasted those deaths whenever she could.

 

     One time, when Salem was explaining how small of a threat Qrow Branwen really was, she had told everyone around her table that after she had had Summer Rose killed that Qrow had fallen. He had gone from somewhat unstable to falling onto the ground in tears. Everyone in the room had laughed and smiled when they heard that, but Cinder and Emerald had held back from laughing too much. Unlike Hazel, Tyrian, Mercury and Watts, they had lost people due to Grimm attacks. They knew what it was like to lose someone to a create of Grimm.

 

     “Are you referring to Summer Rose?” Emerald cringed as she talked, worried that her words might bring out a drunken rage from Qrow. When she didn’t hear the sound of Qrow stomping or growling or speaking, Emerald lifted her head to see the man looking at her with a few tears dotting his face. He tried to wipe them away lazily, but the motion did nothing to expel the water from his face.

 

      “And so many more.” Qrow’s voice was low and deadly. His eyes were alight with a holy fire that made Emerald feel uneasy. She knew that he was a Hunter, and that they usually held themselves up to a code of honor, but she also knew what people did to prisoners in a time of war. Tendrils of fear moved up Emerald’s throat and choked her vocal chords. “So, tell me why I should trust you.”

 

     Emerald felt like Qrow had once again pinned her up against a wall with his hand around her throat. Breath came quicker than Emerald would have liked, and her head felt like it weighed a million pounds but she tried to keep herself together. After taking a steadying breath, Emerald lifted her eyes so that they met Qrow’s, and she felt the fear slowly unwrap its icy fingers from her vocal chords.

 

     “Because I have nothing left to lose.” Emerald replied, and her voice stayed surprisingly level. She was proud of herself for keeping her voice in such a typical cadence, it made her sound more put-together than she really was. “You can’t afford to set me loose, I’m at the point where I’m willing to do almost anything to survive and stay away from Salem and her minions. I’m willing to do anything, and you can’t afford to get rid of that.”

 

     “I think I can afford a few villager’s throats are cut by a common street thief.” Qrow sneered, the tears that had once fallen from his eyes were long gone. He now looked like he was ready to tear Emerald limb from limb, and Emerald could see it in his eyes. “And what makes you think I’m not ready and willing to cut you down where you sit? Do you have any idea the other things I’ve done, little girl? What makes you think I won’t just slit your throat right here and now?”

 

     Without any warning, Qrow took his large weapon from his back and surged forwards with it in his hand. He pressed the sharp, cold blade of the sword of his weapon to Emerald’s throat while murder danced in his eyes. Emerald could feel the cold metal against the skin of her throat and she knew that she should be scared, but she had been threatened so many times in the past few weeks that it had no effect on her anymore.

 

     “Because you need someone with inside information, and I’m the only one who has it.” Emerald spoke as quietly as she could as she tried to not move her throat too much, she didn’t want to add another cut to the numerous scars that ran up and down her beautiful, dark skin. Emerald could see something in Qrow’s eyes change, even if it wasn’t much of a change. “You need me, I have knowledge that you’d die for. Not only that, but I know how to fight and I’ve memorized all of Salem’s minion’s fighting styles.”

 

     “What makes you think I’ll trust you enough to let you join in a fight, much less hold a weapon again?” Qrow growled. He pressed his weapon against Emerald’s throat a little bit harder, and Emerald hissed quietly in pain as her skin was sliced under Qrow’s blade. A thin trickle of blood fell from the cut and began to soak into Cinder’s stolen shirt. “I’m not dumb, Greenie, I know that you’ll turn tail as soon as you can.”

 

     “That’s a risk that you’re desperate enough to take.” Emerald whispered as she pushed her luck just a little bit farther. The blade against her throat was clean and sharp, she had no fear that once it cut through the first layer of her skin that it would stop. She knew that as soon as Qrow lost it and pressed the blade farther into her flesh that she was done for. But Emerald couldn’t make herself care anymore. “You _need_ me, even if you don’t want to admit it.”

 

     Qrow snarled and then quickly removed his weapon from Emerald’s throat. Confusion and hope filled Emerald’s head in equal parts as soon as the blade left her throat, but both emotions gave way to fear when she saw the newly minted anger in Qrow’s eyes. Emerald didn’t understand just what it was with the man, he just seemed to like anger and destroying things. He was destructive and short sighted, just as Salem said he was.

 

     Emerald normally would have grinned at this realization, but now that her life was in his hands, dread only multiplied in her stomach.

 

     “Qrow, what’s going on in there?” A female voice called from the other side of the door that separated the Qrow and Emerald were in from the rest of the building that they were in. Qrow’s shoulders dropped at the sound of the voice, and Emerald tried to place it. It wasn’t Ruby, and it wasn’t high and annoying enough to be Nora. Emerald knew that the rest of team RWBY was off doing different things around Remnant, and it couldn’t be one of them. “Is something wrong? Do you need anything?”

 

     “I’m fine, Winter.” Qrow’s gruff voice lost all emotion and he sent one last glare at Emerald. Emerald could hear Winter Schnee (of course there was a Schnee on the other side of the door, it was just Emerald’s luck) knock on the door a couple of times, and Emerald had no doubt that it was code for something. “Can you go get Ruby for me? I think that our _little_ problem might have just become a _big_ one.”

 

     “Understood.” Winter’s voice had a rigid, icy undertone to it, and it reminded Emerald that Winter had just come from the military, where a tone like that was normal and expected of every soldier when they addressed their superior. Which meant that Qrow was leading this party of people, that Emerald was sure contained at least Ruby, Winter and Qrow. And that boy that she had saw when she stepped out of the portal, considering that she hadn’t imagined him. “I’ll go fetch Ruby for you.”

 

     “Thank you.” Qrow called back to Winter in a low voice. He walked over to the desk where all of Emerald’s belongings were tossed, and he took a seat in the wooden chair next to it. It looked so unnatural to see him sitting still, Emerald had always known Qrow as a fire starter, as someone who never took a vacation from messing with Salem’s plans. To see the true Qrow was a bit of a shock to Emerald.

 

     After a couple seconds of awkward silence, (in which Qrow had moved his weapon to his lap and had ran his fingers over the intricate designs that the metal bore) there was the sound of footsteps outside of the door. There was a soft knocking on the door, this knocking didn’t have the hard, sharp tone that Winter’s knocking did. Emerald guessed that it was Ruby who was knocking at the door, and her suspicions were confirmed when Ruby Rose pushed the door open after a moment of pause.

 

      Ruby didn’t look any different than the projection of her that she had had to create so that Cinder could kill her again and again. But, in person in her new outfit, she looked older and more mature. Her eyes also carried this new maturity, and the way that her shoulders were squared showed that she was ready for anything. However, she faltered just the tiniest bit when she saw Emerald again, and Emerald could see that although she had gone through more battles and suffered more injuries than when she had entered Beacon, the same child was still resting just under the skin.

 

     “Emerald.” Ruby breathed as different emotions passed through her eyes. At first it was anger and fear, then forgiveness and joy, and it finally settled on distrust and mild curiosity. Ruby stepped into the room and stood next to her uncle. As she walked across the room, Qrow’s eyes followed her to make sure that she didn’t do anything stupid, like try to walk right up to Emerald. “It’s really you.”

 

     “Ruby, I-” Emerald started, but she cut herself off when she realized that she had no clue what she wanted to say to Ruby. There didn’t seem to be much for Emerald to say to her, Ruby would ask the questions that she wanted answers to. Emerald had no doubt that Ruby had a million questions, and Emerald understood that. If Emerald were in Ruby’s shoes, she wouldn’t trust herself, either.

 

     “Emerald, why did you come here?” Ruby sounded hurt, and Emerald could only imagine how it felt to be her right now. Emerald had been allied with the people who had killed Penny, who had killed Pyrrah. Ruby had every right to be angry at Emerald, and Emerald just wished that she would yell and cry and get it over with already. “I-I don’t know what you want, and I’m not sure if I’d even be able to give you what you wanted, and-”

 

     “Ruby, I came here because I couldn’t deal with the guilt of being a part of Salem’s plans.” Emerald sighed and found the courage to speak out. Ruby looked taken aback, and Emerald wondered just how low her opinion of her was. “I wasn’t able to deal with the guilt that came along with knowing that I was helping her plans along, and I can’t even bear to think about all of the damage that I’ve helped to cause. I came here, because I know that you were the only person that I could trust enough to not lead me astray.”

 

      “That’s a lot to take in all at once.” Ruby admitted as she walked over and threw herself down onto the bed that Emerald was sitting on. Ruby put her head in her hands and sighed deeply. Emerald wanted to help Ruby somehow, but she wasn’t sure how. Yet again, Emerald had managed to mess something up just by being a part of it. “Emerald, I don’t know if I can trust you right away. So many things are happening all at once. But I think that maybe you can try to win that trust back.”

 

     “Really?” Emerald was surprised at Ruby words, and her red eyes met Ruby’s silver ones. From the other side of the room, Qrow scoffed at Ruby and Emerald’s heart to heart. Ruby nodded bashfully, and Emerald’s heart soared. Maybe coming here wasn’t as big of a mistake as she had once thought. “Okay, okay, I promise that you won’t be disappointed. I’m going to make this work, and I promise that you won’t regret this.”

 

     “Let’s hope not.” Qrow stood up and walked over to Ruby and Emerald, lifting his weapon dangerously close to Emerald’s throat once again. He leaned in close to Emerald’s face, until Emerald could almost taste the stale alcohol on his breath. “Because, let’s be clear here, I can wipe you off of Remnant at the flick of a wrist if you get out of line. Understood?”

 

     “Understood.” Emerald pushed the fear and doubt from her voice, and this time she won the battle. She looked up at Qrow with a defiant, bold gaze and she could almost feel the hate radiating off of him. He didn’t like that he was being pushed to the brink of his patience by a teenage girl, a criminal no less.

 

     Without another word, Qrow let himself out of the room, and the tension in the room evaporated.

 

     “I should help you get out of these ropes.” Ruby dashed to Emerald’s side and began to mess with the ropes that tied Emerald’s wrists together. Emerald shifted her body so that it would be easier for Ruby to mess with the ropes. After a second of untying and Emerald gaining some rope burn on her exposed skin, Emerald’s wrists were free. She moved her arms in front of her body and rolled her wrists a few times to get used to being untied. “There, that’s better. Oh, Emerald, does your neck hurt?”

 

     Emerald thought back to Qrow pressing his blade up against her skin, and she wondered how she could have just forgotten about the pain so quickly. Emerald suspected that it was adrenaline that was keeping her from feeling her injuries. Emerald slowly began to feel the bruises and other injuries that had come with her little battle with Mercury before she had jumped through the portal. Compared to the pain of those bruises, her neck injury was nothing.

 

     “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.” Emerald placed a hand on neck, where she felt a little pang of pain when her fingers brushed the wound that Qrow had inflicted on her neck. It was shallow, and Emerald wasn’t worried about it healing, so there was no reason to fixate on it. “So, who does your party consist of, other than of course you and your uncle Qrow?”

 

      “Um, Qrow’s girlfriend, Winter.” Ruby bit her lip, as if she wasn’t sure what she should be telling Emerald. Emerald wanted to scream out of frustration at this, was it not enough to run away from the only good life she’d ever had? How else was Emerald supposed to convince Ruby that she wasn’t some sort of monster, and that she didn’t want to kill any of her friends or family?

 

      “Winter Schnee, right?” Emerald could remember all of Cinder and Salem’s ranting about Winter Schnee and the whole Schnee family. Apparently, they had once owned that family, but they had broken away from Salem’s leash about two centuries ago, and Salem was still bitter about that fact. Her plan was to seduce Whitley when he became the heir and get back into the company by force and fear once again. “Wasn’t she the one that he fought at the Vytal Festival?”

 

     “Yeah, they had a little brawl.” Ruby chuckled and her whole face lit up when she talked about Qrow. Her gaze glazed over, and Emerald could only imagine that she was trying to think of all of her good memories of the Vytal Festival while also repressing the bad memories. “Professor Ozpin was _not_ happy about it. It was pretty funny, and what was better was that he won the battle. I think that Weiss and I were both pretty surprised after they announced that they were in a relationship.”

 

     “What happened to team JNPR?” Emerald asked as she untied her ankles and rolled them in time with her lowered heart rate. Emerald realized with a little bit of happiness that she was not only feeling safe but relaxed around Ruby. That was a definite improvement from constantly being anxious and paranoid all the time. “Did you guys go your separate ways after the fall of Beacon, or did you stick together as a bigger team?”

 

      There was a beat and a half before Emerald realized that Ruby wasn’t speaking, and that that wasn’t like the girl. Emerald was still untying her left ankle from the rope that no doubt Qrow had tied too tightly. Rope burn was revealed when the horrible object was removed. Emerald looked at Ruby out of the corner of her eye, and it was like a dam had burst and Ruby had gone from happy to sad and angry all at once.

 

     “How could you?” Ruby’s voice shook, and Emerald looked up from her ankles to see Ruby crying. A pit built in Emerald’s stomach when she realized that Ruby was still not over Pyrrah and Penny’s deaths. And why should she be? She was still just a child, after all. “You-you did so many _bad_ things at the fall of Beacon. Pyrrah, and Penny. I know that you didn’t kill either of them, but you helped it happen. I just-Emerald I don’t know if I can forgive you.”

 

      “Ruby, I’m sorry for what I did.” Emerald pressed a hand to her chest and tried to look Ruby in the eyes, but Ruby wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Believe me, I am. I’ve had nightmares about that night since it first happened, and nothing has seemed to help me with that. I came here, to you and to your team, so that I could fight Salem and so that I could say that I’m sorry. I know that you weren’t the only one to lose someone on that day, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how much you had to go through.”

 

      “But why did you have to take my friend away from me?” Ruby yelled at Emerald as the dam of anger and questions burst in Ruby’s mind. Her face contorted to one of anger and pain as she began to sob. Her small body shook with each sob, and it made her look even more like a child than Emerald had ever seen her. “Why did you kill Penny and Pyrrah? What plan did it all serve? Or were they just convenient targets for you to take out? _Why did you take my friends away?”_

“Salem won’t tell me her full plans.” Emerald looked away from Ruby, and Ruby continued to cry. Ruby hugged her arms around her chest, and Emerald wanted nothing more than to comfort the girl, but something in her brain warned her against it. “But if it makes you feel better, which I don’t think that it will, their deaths were planned upon and important to Salem’s plans. I’m so sorry, Ruby. I’m so, so sorry.”

 

     “Emerald, I tried to forgive you and it didn’t work.” Ruby’s voice was small but it cut like a razor blade through Emerald’s heart. This wasn’t a Huntress in front of her, and it wasn’t a woman who had grown up. This was a _child,_ a _little girl,_ who had had her friends taken away from her in front of her own eyes too early. Emerald knew what it was like to lose someone before your very eyes, and she’d never wish it upon anyone. “But, I just can’t. I don’t know if you should stay here with me. I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to find another way to fight Salem.”

 

      “Ruby, wait, I’m not asking for forgiveness!” Emerald spoke quickly as she tried to figure out the best way to get Ruby to listen to her while also not making things worse for the girl. “I’m just asking for a chance, please! Just a couple of weeks, even a couple of days, then I’ll leave. I just don’t want to be left alone, not anymore. Please, I’ve changed and I want to fight back and I want to help you fight back so that we can take Salem down.”

 

      “Why did you ally yourself with Cinder in the first place?” Ruby still didn’t turn around to look at Emerald, and her voice conveyed no emotions. Ruby’s shoulders weren’t shaking with sobs anymore, and she seemed to have composed herself. “Why did you join her, and then join Salem later?”

 

     Emerald was at a loss for words. Why had she joined up with Cinder in the first place? The answer, as much as Emerald didn’t want to admit it to herself, she was just a scared kid who had just left her home after witnessing a horrible thing happen right before her eyes and she was willing to look to anyone as an ally, as a friend. Even a cold, manipulative, abusive bitch like Cinder. A broken, mourning, powerless woman like Cinder.

 

      “I was a thief who was living on the streets and she confronted me in an alleyway.” Emerald recalled the first time that she had met Cinder. She could remember how her shoulders had a defensive pose throughout the whole encounter, how she had never once let her guard drop. Until Cinder had offered to help her, that was. “She saw me steal an engagement ring and she was impressed by what I could do, so she took me under her wing. I didn’t know about her real plans, and once I did it was too late. But why did I join? Because I thought that life was finally throwing me a bone, and I _needed_ to take it.”

 

      Ruby threw herself onto her feet and looked down at Emerald with an emotion resembling forgiveness in her eyes. Emerald could feel relief wash over her mind, and the warning bells that had once sounded when Emerald had told Ruby something so personal were now beginning to quiet down. There was nothing to be afraid of, Ruby wasn’t out to get her.

 

      “I think you should stick around for a while.” Ruby forced herself to have an even voice, and Emerald could hear the strain in her tone. Ruby was no doubt going to go and cry when she got the chance, but Emerald had to admit that the kid had guts to face her demons without backing down for a second. “Maybe then we can become friends again. So, if you’re okay with it, I’d like to welcome you to be a part of team RWWOQ.”

 

      Emerald felt like she was dreaming. Ruby gave Emerald one last strained smile and picked up Emerald’s weapons from the desk that they were piled on as she left the room. Ruby opened and closed the door quickly as she passed through the door without sparing a single second. Emerald could only guess how much self-control had been exhumed for Ruby not to break out crying again.

 

     Walking over to the desk with her belongings piled on them, Emerald picked up a new shirt and was about to walk away from the desk and change her shirt when she saw a note with her name written on it. It was a folded piece of paper that had been creased many, many times but it still looked new. Emerald’s name was written in a messy hand writing and in an ink that was halfway between grey and black, which was the trademark color of just one person that Emerald knew.

 

     With shaking hands, Emerald picked up the note and began to unfold it. Just as she had suspected, it was from Mercury. With her breath stuck in her throat, she began to read the scrawled note.

 

_Emerald-_

_If you’re reading this then it means that you really made it out. Congratulations. You’ve ditched the most powerful team in all of Remnant, and the only team that would be able to defend you from ourselves._

_I hope that when you read this a kind of fear you’ve never felt before grips you. That you fall to your knees, in one those ‘anxiety attacks’ that you like to grace us all with from time to time._

_And why not just stay on your knees? It’ll be all the better for when I come to take your head off of its shoulders._

_Consider this a final declaration of war, a final call for you to just give up._

_Trust me, it’ll be simpler for both of us._

_-Mercury_

      Emerald’s upper lip curled and she crumbled the piece of paper into a ball and threw it against the wall. It didn’t make the same crashing sound in the real world as it did in Emerald’s head, and Emerald was slightly disappointed by this. She stood in the same pose for a while as her thoughts raced through her mind at a million miles an hour, and her breath came fast and shook her shoulders with each gasp for Oxygen.

 

      “I can’t wait for our next battle, either, Mercury.” Emerald growled under her breath. “I’ll love to see you fall down and never get back up.”

 

     With one last shaking breath, Emerald wished death upon Mercury.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will include some more character develoupment. I'm a huge fan of sad backstories (maybe too much of a fan, heh) so Emerald's sad backstory will be reavealed, along with some fun fluffy bonding.  
> I'm trying to fit a whole novel into just five chapters, so that means that I have to pace myself and NOT write 17 chapters worth of content (cough, More Than Survive, cough).  
> I hope that you get more sleep than I do, and that you have a good day!


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